Latest News

• share
• favorite_border

It’s the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ – but it is also one of the busiest times of year for the Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center at Stony Brook University Hospital. As the holidays approach, doctors at the Burn Center are urging people to take extra precautions and to eliminate potential dangers that could lead to serious burn injuries. “Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, we see a significant increase in patients coming in with burns,” said Steven Sandoval, MD, Medical Director, Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center, Stony Brook University Hospital. “Holiday celebrations should be full of joy, but if not careful, could quickly turn tragic.” Dr. Sandoval says many of these burns and injuries can be preventable and shares some tips for a safe holiday season.

• share
• favorite_border

Laurie T. Krug is the first early career scientist to be named Stony Brook University Discovery Prize Fellow, a new philanthropically-sponsored award established to fund high-risk, high-reward basic research projects. Krug was named today following a “Shark Tank”-meets-“TED Talk”-styled competition at the Simons Foundation headquarters in New York City. Krug was selected from one of four finalists for her project that researches herpes viruses that are associated with cancer and the idea of delivering molecular scissors to the site of virus infection using nanoparticles.

• share
• favorite_border

The flu, or seasonal influenza virus, is extremely unpredictable. Its severity can vary widely from one season to the next depending on many things, including the strains of flu spreading, availability of vaccines, how many people get vaccinated and how well the flu vaccine is matched to the flu viruses circulating each season. For these reasons, especially with recent news out of the CDC last week, many may be wondering, “should I be concerned about this flu season?”

• share
• favorite_border

The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University is challenging scientists to answer an eye-opening question: What is sleep? That is the wake-up call for scientists in this year’s edition of the Flame Challenge. In this international contest, scientists – from graduate students to senior researchers – are challenged to communicate complex science in ways that will interest and enlighten 11-year-olds, who judge the contest.

• share
• favorite_border

Nuclear power is part of the worldwide energy mix, accounting for around 10% of global electricity supply. Safety is the paramount issue. Uranium dioxide (UO2) is the major nuclear fuel component of fission reactors, and the concern during severe accidents is the melting and leakage of radioactive UO2 as it corrodes through its protective containment systems. Understanding—in order to predict—the behavior of UO2 at extreme temperatures is crucial to improved safety and optimization of this electricity source.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of Stony Brook University researchers has been awarded 50 million hours on the Titan Cray XK7 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, to advance their research on modeling of astrophysical explosions. The two-year project, titled, “Approaching Exascale Models of Astrophysical Explosions,” led by Astronomy Professor Michael Zingale in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, stems from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment award (INCITE), which provides the supercomputing hours.

• share
• favorite_border

Major depressive disorder (MDD) should be re-conceptualized as an infectious disease, according to Turhan Canli, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Radiology at Stony Brook University. In a paper published in Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders, Dr.Canli suggests that major depression may result from parasitic, bacterial, or viral infection. He presents examples that illustrate possible pathways by which these microorganisms could contribute to the etiology of MDD.

• share
• favorite_border

Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC (BSA) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue managing and operating Brookhaven National Laboratory under a new five-year base contract. Established as a partnership between Battelle and Stony Brook University, BSA has managed Brookhaven Lab since 1998.

• share
• favorite_border

A newly discovered 66–70 million-year-old groundhog-like creature, massive in size compared to other mammals of its era, provides new and important insights into early mammalian evolution.

• share
• favorite_border

Sometimes you just have to do it yourself. That’s what the Stony Brook Foundation did in establishing The Discovery Fund, which supports pioneering scientific breakthroughs with philanthropic giving in response to declining federal grants for basic research. Now, the finalists for the inaugural Discovery Fund Award have been selected and will compete for up to $200,000; the recipient(s) of which will be announced immediately following their presentations which will take place on Thursday, December 11 in New York City.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B finds that people are quick to change their moral values depending on which rule means more cash for them instead of others

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

When it comes to Halloween, our doctors have seen it all — from allergic reactions to candy to traffic accidents. Most are preventable! Experts at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital share their best tips for keeping your children healthy and safe while trick or treating and more:

• share
• favorite_border

Scientific inquiry is a hit and miss proposition, subject to constant checking and rechecking. Recently, a new class of materials was discovered called topological insulators—nonmetallic materials with a metallic surface capable of conducting electrons. The effect, based on relativity theory, exists only in special materials—those with heavy elements—and has the potential to revolutionize electronics.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The proteins that drive DNA replication—the force behind cellular growth and reproduction—are some of the most complex machines on Earth. The multistep replication process involves hundreds of atomic-scale moving parts that rapidly interact and transform. Mapping that dense molecular machinery is one of the most promising and challenging frontiers in medicine and biology.

• share
• favorite_border

On Friday October 31, 2014 Stony Brook Neurosciences Institute will hold its 5th annual Meeting of the Minds Symposium. The focus will be on Parkinson's Disease and Deep Brain Simulation Therapies: Practice and Theory

• share
• favorite_border

Stony Brook University will host its second TEDxSBU event on Nov. 14, 2014, from 9:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. in the Charles B. Wang Center Theater. The theme of this year’s event is “Connect the Dots,” and will feature 16 speakers and performers from Stony Brook’s student, faculty, staff, and alumni populations.

• share
• favorite_border

The results of a four-year international study of 2,060 cardiac arrest cases across 15 hospitals worldwide concluded that there is a unique experience of death for humans that appears far broader than what has been referred to as so called near-death experiences (NDEs). Dr. Sam Parnia, Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Director of Resuscitation Research at Stony Brook Medicine is lead author of the study, which is published in the journal Resuscitation.

• share
• favorite_border

Science on Tap, a live event and web show created by the Stony Brook University School of Journalism’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, makes its debut at the Hilton Garden Inn on the Stony Brook Campus on Wednesday, October 26 at 6:00pm with featured topic, “Autism: What Works and Why?

• share
• favorite_border

Few journalists in American history have had the impact on their era and craft that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have. Pulitzer-winning journalists, Woodward and Bernstein will speak at Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD’s Presidential Lecture entitled “Looking at the Presidency: from Nixon to Obama” at Stony Brook University’s Staller Center for the Arts Thursday, October 16, 2014 at 4:00pm. The lecture is free and open to the public.

• share
• favorite_border

A patient being treated at a Dallas hospital is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, health officials announced yesterday. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the unidentified man left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20. At that time, the individual did not have symptoms, but several days later, he began to feel ill. He went to a local emergency department, but was discharged and went home. As he continued to be symptomatic, he went to the emergency department of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where is was admitted and isolated on Sunday.

• share
• favorite_border

Climate change is expected to result in heightened risk of extinction for many species. Because conservation scientists are just starting to understand this threat, many have concluded that current risk assessment protocols, such as the International 'Red List' published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and based on rules established in the 1990s, will fail to identify many species at risk from climate change. However, an international team of researchers, including Professor Resit Akçakaya of Stony Brook University’s Department of Ecology and Evolution, counter that current assessment methods are able to identify such species. Their findings are published in the journal Global Change Biology.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Stony Brook University showcased the construction progress of its new Stony Brook Children’s Hospital facility during a ceremony yesterday where President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., was joined by public officials, generous donors, young patients and their families, and hundreds of administrators, physicians and staff. The new facility, which will have 100 beds and occupy two stories of a new 10-story Hospital Pavilion, is slated to open in 2016.

• share
• favorite_border

Brooke Ellison draws her own power from will, but the ventilator that keeps her alive requires uninterrupted electricity. Dr. Ellison is allowing scientists to field-test, at her home, the Nextek Power Systems STAR, a mobile solar generator.

• share
• favorite_border

One thing leads to another, especially in research. When Stony Brook University School of Medicine scientists developed a new method to measure how cocaine disrupts blood flow in the brains of mice, doctors and researchers got a way to form a clearer picture of how drug abuse affects the brain. But the quantitative imaging technique can also be applied to other disease diagnoses and treatments as well, including cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

According to the findings from research conducted over the past several years at Stony Brook Medicine’s World Trade Center Health Program, as many as 60 percent of 9/11 World Trade Center responders continue to experience clinically significant symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and lower respiratory illness.

• share
• favorite_border

A respiratory virus that has sent hundreds of children to hospitals in Missouri is causing alarm across the Midwest and beyond. So far, ten states have contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help investigating clusters of the virus that's being blamed for the illness. Although health officials say they're still figuring out what's going on, the bug that appears to be causing most of the concern is Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68). Many of its symptoms are very common and could be confusing parents with sick children.

• share
• favorite_border

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart arrhythmia in the United States, affecting between 3-4 million people and numbers are expected to increase by the year 2050 to 12 million to 14 million. Although widely unknown to the general public, atrial fibrillation or AFib needs to be taken seriously. It increases the risk of stroke by as much as five times and can contribute to heart failure and other heart conditions. Because of this reason, Dr. Eric Rashba, Director, Heart Rhythm Center, Stony Brook University Heart Institute, is raising awareness about this condition in hopes to get patients’ hearts back in rhythm.

• share
• favorite_border

Sleep, or lack thereof, and technology often go hand in hand when it comes to school-aged kids. Nearly three out of four children (72%) between the ages of 6 and 17 have at least one electronic device in their bedrooms while sleeping, according to a National Sleep Foundation survey. Children who leave those electronic devices on at night sleep less—up to one hour less on average per night, according to a poll released by the foundation earlier this year.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Prescribing both a stimulant and an antipsychotic drug to children with physical aggression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), along with teaching parents to use behavior management techniques, reduces aggressive and serious behavioral problems in children, according to a study conducted by researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. The findings are published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

• share
• favorite_border

Stony Brook University has been named in Princeton Review’s 2015 Green Honor Roll, an annual list that offers a measure of how environmentally friendly universities are on a scoring scale of 60 to 99. Stony Brook, one of 24 universities to receive a score of 99 (the highest possible score), is among 861 colleges reviewed this year. Selection is based on data collected in its 2013-14 surveys of schools concerning their sustainability-related practices, policies, and academic offerings.

• share
• favorite_border

Stony Brook University’s (SBU) Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering online (BSEEOL) degree has been recognized as one of the best by OnlineCollege.org, a blog featuring the latest news in higher education and online learning. Taking top honor in four categories, SBU is recognized as offering the highest

• share
• favorite_border

Pediatricians have a new prescription for schools: later start times for teens. Delaying the start of the school day until at least 8:30 a.m. would help curb their lack of sleep, which has been linked with poor health, bad grades, car crashes and other problems, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said in a new policy, which outlined chronic sleep deficits in our nation’s adolescents.

• share
• favorite_border

Between buying new backpacks and pencils, sneakers and jeans, parents should start thinking about getting their children into the pediatrician for a back-to-school medical exam.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Stony Brook University’s Scott Laughlin, PhD, an Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER). The EAGER awards are part of the foundation’s support of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a multi-agency research effort that seeks to accelerate the development of new neurotechnologies that promise to help researchers answer fundamental questions about how the brain works.

• share
• favorite_border

Cardiac arrest – an electrical malfunction in the heart that causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) and disrupts the flow of blood to the brain, lungs and other organs - is a leading cause of death. Each year, over 420,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States. When a person has a cardiac arrest, survival depends on immediately getting CPR from someone nearby.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Babies and young children can sleep so peacefully that it may be tempting to leave them alone in a car while you run a quick errand. This, however, must never be done. It can lead to heatstroke, serious injury, and death. Heatstroke is the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related deaths for children. It has claimed the lives of more than 600 children since 1998, and that number grows close to 40 more each year.

• share
• favorite_border

Most people associate arthritis with aging, but the fact is, one in 1,000 children is diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. Stony Brook Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Rheumatologist Dr. Julie Cherian addresses the most common questions from parents — and discusses what they can do if they suspect their child may have arthritis.

• share
• favorite_border

As the digital age began to forever change how news and information were transmitted, Stony Brook University School of Journalism faculty members considered the following challenge: “Could they create an educational model that would prepare the next generation of news consumers to navigate the new, emerging information ecosystem and discover for themselves what news was trustworthy?” They met this challenge by working with the University to create the nation’s first Center for News Literacy, which is the subject of new paper published by “The Brookings Institution” this month.

• share
• favorite_border

STONY BROOK, NY, JULY 15, 2014 – The facts couldn’t be clearer: Car accidents are the number-one cause of accidental deaths in children ages 0-19 nationally. The AAA auto club says the 100 days of summer (from Memorial Day to Labor Day) are the deadliest for teenage drivers and their teen passengers. It's a time when schedules are looser; trips involve friends and fun rather than school and structured activities; and curfews may be less strict.

• share
• favorite_border

Research findings from an international team of scientists uncovers details on how a new species of a feathered raptorial dinosaur found in China provides evidence on how large-bodied dinosaurs took to the air.

• share
• favorite_border

A dream come “chew” for your teeth? Researchers at Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine and Ortek Therapeutics, Inc., have developed a chocolate-flavored soft chew that is actually beneficial for your teeth. BasicBites™ is a sugar-free chewy that helps maintain healthy teeth by supporting the normal acid-base (pH) levels that exist on tooth surfaces while coating the teeth with a mineral source.

• share
• favorite_border

The first global census of the Adélie penguin, long considered a key indicator species to monitor and understand the effects of climate change and fishing in the Southern Ocean, has revealed its population (3.79 million breeding pairs) to be 53 percent larger than previously estimated. By using high-resolution satellite imagery, Stony Brook University ecologist Heather Lynch, PhD, and conservation biologist Michelle LaRue, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, have applied a new method that permits regular monitoring of Adélie penguins across their entire breeding range, and by extension the health of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Their findings are published in The Auk, Orinthological Advances.

• share
• favorite_border

For many Americans, summer means fun in the sun; kids are out of school, adults are on vacation and it's time for outdoor activities. But with all these pleasures of the season comes injuries and increased visits to the emergency department.

• share
• favorite_border

Sir Simon K. Donaldson, Professor of Mathematics in the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics(SCGP) and the Department of Mathematics and Professor of Pure Mathematics at Imperial College London, was selected to receive the inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, announced the Breakthrough Prize Foundation on Monday. Donaldson, a permanent member of the SCGP, was acknowledged for “the new revolutionary invariants of four-dimensional manifolds and for the study of the relation between stability in algebraic geometry and in global differential geometry, both for bundles and for Fano varieties.”